Their roots go all the way back to The Humblebums, a late 60's trio of Scottish folkies comprising Rafferty, Billy Connolly, and Tam Harvey who cut a couple of successful albums for Transatlantic. Following the bums split in 1971. Rafferty released a solo album 'Can I have Money Back' and the following year formed the original Stealers Wheel from the nucleus of the musicians employed on his solo outing, including most notably Joe Egan (a former school chum of Rafferty's) plus Rab Noakes (guitar/vocals) and Roger Brown (vocals) to which bassist Ian Campell was added. But by the time the group had signed with A&M, Noakes, Brown and Cambell had left, their places being taken by guitarist Paul Pilnick (formerly with The Big Three) , Tony Williams (bass), and Rod Coombes (drums) - and it was this revised line-up featuring Rafferty and Egan as joint lead vocalists, playing guitars and keyboards respectively, which cut their eponymously titled debut album in 1973. Produced by erstwhile legendary 50's veterans Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, the album received ecstatic reviews - but true form there were hassles. Rafferty had left the band prior to it's release, being replaced by ex-Spooky Tooth Luther Grosvenor and at the same time Williams was replaced by Delisle Harper.

Ironically the album started to move, eventually peaking at #50 in the US. The singles dawn from it 'Stuck in the middle of you' began pealing up airplay and started to climb, reaching #6 in the US and #8 in the UK (selling well over a million copies in the process) by which time Rafferty had been persuaded to rejoin - but at the cost of Pilnick, Coombes. Grosvenor and Harper: Henceforth Rafferty and Egan elected to continue as a Dou, augmenting both sessions and live appearances with session man.

They registered a small hit with 'Everyone's agreed that everything will turn out fine' (#33 UK;#49 US) later that same year and scored again with 'Star' (#25 UK;#29 US) in '74 - which trailered the marvelous 'FERGUSLIE PARK' set (named after a district in Rafferty & Egan's native Paisley) which made #181 in the US. With their critical stock at something of a peak they looked set to clean up: however, disappointment at the second albums' sales caused further tensions - and it somehow all contrived to go wrong. They'd finally fallen out irrevocably with Leiber & Stoller; were suffering severe managerial problems, could not find a settled line-up, and Rafferty and Egan were barely speaking to one another ! Consequently their third album 'RIGHT OR WRONG' (Produced by Mentor William) took 18-month to see the light of day, by which time they'd effectively ceased trading. Ironically, it remains a fine epitaph to Stealers Wheel, being at least as good as its predecessors, and giving absolutely no indications that it had been recorded in anything less than idyllic circumstances.

Further protracted contractual and managerial hassles prevented either Rafferty or Egan from recording for three years. Egan eventually squeezed out a couple of unspectacular albums for Ariola(which duly sank without a trace)- whereas his former cohort had re-emerged in spectacular style in 1978 on United Artists with the remarkable, multi-platinum 'City to City' album which topped the US charts and yielded the worldwide smash 'Baker Street'. Rafferty continued to score heavily (particularly in the US) into the 80's with 'Night Owl'; 'Snakes and Ladders';' Sleepwalking'; around 1990 'North & South'; continued to register hit singles; and further broadened his horizons, enjoying success as a producer with the young Scottish duo The Proclaimer in the late 80's.

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